technical

Another Dangerous CFL Bulb bites the dust.

~ Ron Walker ~ 1 Comment

CFL Bulbs have been shoved down the throats of US consumers by federal law. Why on earth to they insist on us using a mercury filled bulb in our homes. It’s one thing to use in commercial buildings and schools as those types have been tested over the years and seldom fail with dangerous consequences.

Yesterday a CFL bulb from Lowes (Bright Effects Brand) started getting dim and flickered a tiny bit. Later towards evening when I entered the bedroom there was a strange pungent almost acidic smell like chlorine in the room. Michelle said the light had made a hissing noise and went out. A multi-year bulb going out after just a year. I imagine that smell had something to do with the Mercury in the bulb escaping from the looks of it.

Just 2 years ago I wrote of another one in our home popping and it shot sparks upwards like a sparkler on July 4th. Had it been close to flammable curtains and I not been there it might have been tragic.

Here are the pictures of the one last night. This light was in an open ventilated standing lamp. The bulb is UL approved and sold my Lowe’s Home Improvement Stores. It was pointing upwards so there was no build up of heat.

I think I am going to look into LED lighting to see if it is safer. My advice just based on my experience in the last two years. Would be not to leave any lights on while you are away from home if they are these types of curly CFL’s.

Photos are large for detail.cflburn.jpg

 

4bYT1qM.jpg

Have you had a similar experience in your home?
Comments welcome,

Do people actually click these Spammers!?

~ Ron Walker ~ 1 Comment

I can’t for the life of me imagine people actually clicking on a link that is sent to them uninvited. I guess it must happen a lot though judging by the stupid spam that come flooding in to this blog (which is blocked of course).

For about 4 months now I have had no spammers even trying. Then the last of April I posted about the ease of programming a TYT-9000D with Linux and CHIRP. A review of software for Amateur Radio and Linux. Now that post had absolutely nothing to do with Weight lose or T-Shirts but somehow I got back onto someone’s share list of “Let’s go spam this guy”. I had 100 spammers yesterday and 13 so far today. I love the good ole “Empty Spam” button.

Spammers are the lowest form of life there is, clogging up the internet with pure junk, of course we have those also that must click that stuff or they would not see so much money in it.

Comments welcome,

Programming TYT-9000D with Linux CHIRP

~ Ron Walker ~ Leave a comment

I tried using the software that came with the TYT programming cable months ago. On Windows it kept losing the location of the com port and you would have to do the dance of locating what port it was on and re-enter it only to have it loose it again a couple of boot ups later.

I decided since I was now using Linux (Mint) now instead of Windows I would find a Linux version. I located CHIRP a great program that installed flawlessly, and once I paid close attention and selected the correct Radio from the Options everything worked like a charm!

The instructions are on the website in the link above, but just in case something were to happen to it here they are again.

sudo apt-add-repository ppa:dansmith/chirp-snapshots
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install chirp-daily

Set the port and place your username where it says “username” found instructions on this page.
sudo usermod -aG dialout username

My settings for my TT–9000D 2 meter radio under “Radio” in Chirp.
USB0
TYT9000_144

I hope this helps anyone wanting to program their TYT Radio with CHIRP.

Comments welcome,